Homes @ Stepping Out

There is a huge unmet need for suitable housing for people with learning disabilities and/or autism. Too often they are placed in areas which are unsuitable and do not meet their sensory needs. 

Stepping Out is partnering with Agile Homes, Vita and Accessible PRS to provide a new housing model for our young people when they leave the family home. All of us share a passion for social justice and equality and a desire to put our members' needs first when creating a place for them to live and work.

Our vision is to create a central communal space which will be the hub of Stepping Out's daily activities. We will continue to offer our personalised programmes of work experience, education, life skills, social and leisure opportunities to our members. Surrounding the hub will be a number of bespoke properties for those of our members who wish to live in their own homes, with support tailored to their individual needs. Members living here will continue to have access to the SO hub as needed. Support will be provided by our residential team. Some members will go out to work during the day and access the hub for social events, whereas others will spend more time in the supported environment of the hub. 

Agile Homes design, manufacture and deliver, affordable, high quality, low carbon

homes for people in housing need. They create a people-centred housing model that radically changes the housing market, using a 'fabric first' approach of sustainable, non-toxic, bio-based materials (timer and straw). Each Agile home is designed around the people who are going to live in it, is triple glazed, fully insulated (A+ EPCs) and costs 90% less to heat than a conventional home. Agile's panel based system allows flexibility in the design and size of space, and supports fast delivery. Agile's homes meet (and exceed) all Building Regulation requirements and meet Future Homes Standards 2025. Additionally they are BOPAS and CHAS certified, and their homes are easily financeable. 

The Habitat Agenda recognised that ‘homes are the anchors of human life’. This is especially relevant to the people that we represent because the relationships that need to be built with the people providing support, be that within family, friendship groups, community or paid support need to be rooted in a place that has permanence; and is somewhere that anyone would be proud to call home.